100%: the Story of a Patriot eBook

“They call you the `head money devil.’
They call you the financial king of American City.”

“King!” cried the banker. “What
rubbish! Why, Gudge, that’s fool newspaper
talk! I’m a poor man today. There are
two dozen men in this city richer than I am, and who
have more power. Why—­” But the
old man fell to coughing and became so exhausted that
he sank back into his pillows until he recovered his
breath. Peter waited respectfully; but of course
he wasn’t fooled. Peter had carried on
bargaining many times in his life, and had heard people
proclaim their poverty and impotence.

“Now, Gudge,” the old man resumed.
“I don’t want to be killed; I tell you
I don’t want to be killed.”

“No, of course not,” said Peter.
It was perfectly comprehensible to him that Mr. Ackerman
didn’t want to be killed. But Mr. Ackerman
seemed to think it necessary to impress the idea upon
him; in the course of the conversation he came back
to it a number of times, and each time he said it
with the same solemn assurance, as if it were a brand
new idea, and a very unusual and startling idea.
“I don’t want to be killed, Gudge; I tell
you I don’t want to let those fellows get me.
No, no; we’ve got to circumvent them, we’ve
got to take precautions—­every precaution—­I
tell you every possible precaution.”

“Nonsense!” exclaimed the other. “I
employ you! I’m putting up the money for
this work, and I want the facts!—­I want
them all.”

“Well,” said Peter, “they’ve
been very decent to me—­”

“I say tell me everything!” exclaimed
the old man. He was a most irritable old man,
and couldn’t stand for a minute not having what
he asked for. “What’s the matter with
them?”

Peter answered, as humbly as he could: “I
could tell you a great deal that’d be of use
to you, Mr. Ackerman, but you got to keep it between
you and me.”

“All right!” said the other, quickly.
“What is it?”

“If you give a hint of it to anybody else,”
persisted Peter, “then I’ll get fired.”

“You’ll not get fired, I’ll see
to that. If necessary I’ll hire you direct.”

“Ah, but you don’t understand, Mr. Ackerman.
It’s a machine, and you can’t run against
it; you gotta understand it, you gotta handle it right.
I’d like to help you, and I know I can help you,
but you gotta let me explain it, and you gotta understand
some things.”